Thursday, November 15, 2007

Bridge Over Troubled...Bridge

Upon winning the Venice Cup at last month's world bridge championships in Shanghai, the US women's team (almost half of whom, interestingly, are named Jill) held up an impromptu protest sign that said, "We did not vote for Bush."

Because apparently, there's corporate sponsorships involved with high-level bridge. Who knew? And it just took one little sign written on the back of a menu to potentially screw things up for the rest of the admittedly small in number, yet mighty in spirit, American female professional bridge community.

Informally, the women have been accused over e-mail of both treason and sedition (which I had to look up), and the president of the US Bridge Federation has formally proposed that the women be barred from competition for one year, be on probation for a year after that, do 200 hours of community service which furthers the interest of bridge, and offer an apology drafted by the federation's lawyer. Jeepers!

Debbie Rosenberg, apparently the one actually holding the sign, said, "I earn my living from bridge, and a substantial part of that from being hired to compete in high-level competitions. So being barred would directly affect much of my ability to earn a living.”

[Which kind of made me wonder where the insubstantial part of Debbie's bridge-based income comes from. Bilking seniors at the retirement home? Pick-up bridge for milk money on the playground after school? The notorious bridge parlors of Cleveland's Lakeshore Heights?]

Anyway.

What I would like you to do is go see this write-up of the story, and tell me what you think is weird about the cards in the picture. (If you said "UNSOLVED HOMICIDE," you're on the right track.)